To understand the nature of feelings, we must look into the importance of the senses, objects of the senses, the mind and the intellect.
It is important to ask one fundamental question: which is more important, the senses or the objects of the senses? For example, are your eyes more important than the television? Is your tongue more important than food? Someone who is not wise knows that his system does not want a lot of food and still continues to eat or knows watching TV for too long affects the eyesight and still continues to watch it anyway. But our senses are more important than the objects of the senses.
Now, what is more important than the sense objects? It is the mind. Often, we don’t do things mindfully; that is, we are doing something, but our mind is somewhere else. When the senses and the sense objects are given more importance than the mind, depression can set in. We get depressed when we don’t get something we want. The nature of the mind is to go up and down. Wiser is the one who attends to the mind more than to the senses.
Discipline kills the tendencies of the mind. And discipline is a subject of the intellect. Now, is the mind more important than the intellect?
The intellect is more important because it makes a decision based on wisdom. Those who are not as wise follow the mind and not the intellect. They follow their whims and fancies, like a rolling stone. For example, in business, they will start a business and close it, and start another, then close that one too. If you ask why, they'd say, “Oh, it is because I like this or I don’t like that.” What is the big deal about your feelings? One who does not care for the feelings will reach the Self.
Your commitments and dedications pull you along and make you rise above the mind. When your life is dedicated to a cause on this planet, it brings valour, vigour, peace, stability, and a force from within you. Otherwise, you feel good one moment and bad another moment; your feelings constantly change; your happiness and stability remain fragile. Even in the best situation, you have felt miserable. Haven’t you?
Life runs on commitment. “Okay, this is my life, and I am going to live it by this commitment.” Knowledge and enlightenment are only for brave people. Knowledge is for those who are ready; one who is not strong cannot realise the Self. And that strength comes when you don’t care too much for your feelings and go with the commitment in your life. However, it’s important that you do not get stuck in the intellect also. Beyond the intellect is the Self.
